Page 117 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sydney

BO T ANIC GARDEN AND THE DOM AIN  115

offices. Parliamentary original convict-built Florence Nightingale approved
memo rabilia is on view Sydney Hospital – the design of the 1867 nurses’
in the Jubilee Room, as known as the Rum wing. In the inner courtyard,
are displays showing Hospital because the there is a brightly coloured Art
Parliament House’s builders were paid by Deco fountain (1907).
development and the being allowed to At the front of the hospital sits
legislative history of import rum for resale. Il Porcellino, a brass boar. It is a
New South Wales. Both the north and copy of a 17th-century fountain
The corrugated-iron south wings of the in Florence’s Mercato Nuovo.
building, with a cast- Rum Hospital survive Donated in 1968 by an Italian
iron façade tacked on as Parliament House woman whose relatives had
at the southern end, and the Sydney Mint. worked at the hospital, the
was a pre-fabricated Stained glass at The central wing, statue is an enduring sym bol
kit from England. It was Sydney Hospital which was in danger of the close friendship
originally intend ed as a of collapsing, was between Italy and Australia.
chapel for the gold fields, but demolished in 1879 and the Like his Florentine counter-
was diverted from this purpose new hospital, which still functions part, Il Porcellino is supposed
and sent to Sydney. In 1856, today, was completed in 1894. to bring good luck to all those
this disman tled kit became The Classical Revival building who rub his snout. All coins
the chamber for the new boasts a Baroque staircase and tossed in the shallow pool at
Legislative Council. Its packing elegant floral stained-glass his feet for luck and fortune
cases were used to line this windows in its entrance hall. are collected for the hospital.
chamber; the rough timber is
still on view inside.

q Sydney Hospital
Macquarie St. Map 1 C4. Tel 9382
7111. @ Sydney Explorer, Elizabeth St
routes.  Martin Place. Open daily.
& for tours. 7 8 must be pre-
booked by phone. ∑ seslhd.health.
nsw.gov.au
This imposing collection of
Victorian sandstone build ings
stands on the site of what was
once the central section of the II Porcellino, the brass boar in front of Sydney Hospital

The lamps hanging over the The Little Shop,
gateways of Parliament House a tiny corner store,
are reproductions of the currently resides in
19th-century gas lamps one of two domed
that used to stand here. former gatehouses.
The entrance stairs
of Pyrmont sandstone
have set the tone for all
renovations. The stone,
quarried in Colonial
times, must be
matched exactly.
Corrugated iron Arched sandstone Arcaded stone verandas
and cast-iron bridges with ornate balustrading
façade

Sydney Hospital (1868–94)

114-115_EW_Sydney.indd 115 29/05/17 12:16 pm